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Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov was possibly poisoned

The Russian-Canadian dual citizen is in hospital in grave condition. Verzilov’s symptoms are said to include losing his eyesight and ability to speak. “We think that he was poisoned,” the punk protest group said in the tweet. Verzilov spent years in Toronto as a teenager and made the news recently as one of four activists to run onto the field during the FIFA World Cup final in Russia in July. Canada, Britain and other Western allies called on Russia last week to disclose its nerve-agent program. That came as Britain identified two Russian officers who it said were behind a poisoning attack earlier this year on a former Russian spy and his daughter.

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The Liberals say the refugee queue will shrink, but wait times are predicted to rise

Border Security Minister Bill Blair says money to hire 64 new adjudicators for the refugee system will cut down on the current 20-month wait for a hearing. But the Immigration and Refugee Board, which oversees the process, says wait times “are not expected to decrease” with the hires. Since new claims are being filed at a rate faster than the IRB is closing existing cases, the agency said the new positions will at most slow the growth of the queue. The wait for hearings has jumped from 14 months to 20 in a span of two years as tens of thousands of asylum seekers cross over the Canada-U.S. border, mostly via an unauthorized crossing in Quebec.

More than 10 million people are in the path of Hurricane Florence

Time is running short to get out of the way of Hurricane Florence, a monster of a storm that has a region of more than 10 million people in its potentially devastating sights as it zeroes in on the Southeastern coast.

Forecasters said early Thursday that the storm’s outer rain bands are approaching the North Carolina coast. Its wind speeds have dropped from a high of 140 mph (225 kph) to 110 mph (175 kph), reducing it from a Category 4 storm to a Category 2, and additional fluctuations and weakening were likely as it swirled toward land.

Canada, U.S. are deadlocked as Mexico rejoins NAFTA talks

Canadian and American officials are now in a “continuous negotiation phase,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said (for subscribers). Not much was achieved during Freeland’s single day of talks in Washington this week, trade players say, and the Foreign Minister declined to say when she will return to the U.S. capital. The lack of progress comes as Mexican officials arrive back in Washington to draw up the text of the proposed bilateral deal struck with the U.S. in August. Canada-U.S. talks remain bogged down by differences on dairy access and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism, with one source saying no deal seems likely to be reached this week.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Humboldt Broncos played their first regular season game since the deadly bus crash

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Returning Humboldt Broncos players Brayden Camrud (26) and Derek Patter (23) hug as they take part in the pre-game ceremony on Wednesday.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press

Fans filled the sold-out Elgar Petersen Arena in Saskatchewan last night, five months after a bus crash claimed 16 lives. Only two players who survived the crash are still on the junior A hockey team’s roster. One, Brayden Camrud, overcame a severe concussion, neck issues and loss of feeling in his arms to return to the ice last night. “Playing tonight definitely helps heal the wounds but it won’t for sure heal everything,” said survivor Kaleb Dahlgren, who now plays hockey in Ontario. “There’s still lots that need to be done.”

MORNING MARKETS

Stocks rise

World markets calmed after signs of movement in the U.S.-China trade stand-off and ahead of major central bank meetings on Thursday, including emerging market trouble spot Turkey. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.5 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 1.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3 per cent by about 6:35 a.m. ET, while Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was hovering below 77 US cents. Oil prices fell, slipping back from four-month highs.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Let’s dial back the hysteria over the ‘epidemic’ of teen vaping

“The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared on Wednesday that vaping is an epidemic among teenagers and vowed a severe crackdown on manufacturers and retailers if they don’t severely curtail sales to minors. “The disturbing and accelerating trajectory of use we’re seeing in youth, and the resulting path to addiction, must end,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. … The real striking part of Dr. Gottlieb’s statement was his repeated use of the word “epidemic.” He said he was using that word “with great care” to underscore the “ubiquitous and dangerous trend” of teen vaping. But that kind of hyperbolic language is not helpful. Vaping is, technically, an epidemic among young people – meaning it is growing at a rapid rate. But for the general public, “epidemic” tends to imply a deadly threat. Teen vaping is no such thing.” – André Picard

Whether or not to body-slam a groper is a split-second, personal decision

“The split-second decision of whether or not to stand up for yourself when a stranger touches your body is one that women make every day, everywhere. It happens at work, on the street, in bars, at school, any place you can think of. I have a friend who took an entire transit trip with a man’s hand on her leg, and another who grabbed the hand of a man that groped her on the subway, held it up and yelled ‘this is the hand that touched me!’ Going on instinct more than calculation, we decide in a moment how safe we are, or aren’t, and how much we do, or don’t, want to make a scene. Then we reconsider that decision for hours or days or years afterward.” – Denise Balkissoon

No, Doug Ford is not defying constitutional law

“Doug Ford’s Ontario government is being roundly lambasted for the use of the override provisions of the Constitution. And rightly so. But critics are doing so for all the wrong reasons. They are confusing and collapsing democratic politics and constitutional law. As much as the critics would wish otherwise, use of the override is not a flouting of the Constitution or the rule of law. The override is as much a part of the Canadian Constitution as the s.15 equality guarantee or s.2’s freedom of expression. There would have been no Charter without s.33’s override provision. The problem is that people are getting mixed up about two distinct issues: the constitutional question of what governments can or cannot do as a matter of constitutional law, and what they should and should not do as a matter of democratic politics. Ford can likely do what he proposes as a constitutional matter, but he should not be doing so as a political matter.” – Allan Hutchinson, professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University

LIVING BETTER

Getting to the core of cider’s popularity

First there was a craft brewery explosion. Now, Canada is beginning to see the growth of craft cider houses as nationwide cider sales boomed to $256-million in 2017 compared with just $90-million in 2006. And as demand increases, cider is starting to shed its “alcoholic pop” image. In B.C., promoting your product as craft means using provincially-grown apples, without relying on added sugar or diluting with water. Styles can range from dry to ice cider to amber-coloured “fire cider.”

MOMENT IN TIME

Germans bomb Buckingham Palace

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AP

Sept. 13, 1940: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were having tea at around 11 a.m. when a Nazi German raider dropped a stick of five high-explosive bombs on Buckingham Palace. The resulting explosions ruptured a water main, blew out most of the windows on two sides and left one person dead and three injured. The King and Queen escaped unscathed and it would be the closest the Luftwaffe came to claiming the King’s life. But with one delayed-action bomb still sitting in wait, the incident wasn’t over until just past 8:30 the next morning when it finally detonated. Afterwards, the Queen said: “I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.” The palace experienced 16 separate bombings, nine being direct hits, during the infamous Blitz, which saw London bombarded for 57 consecutive nights. Despite this, the Royal Family insisted on remaining in Buckingham Palace – much to the chagrin of government advisers but winning the hearts of their subjects – and in the end, the palace emerged from the Second World War relatively unscathed. – Iain Boekhoff

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